You’ve been working full-time for seven or eight years, at several companies. Unless those were all very small companies you should have been exposed to quite a

You’ve been working full-time for seven or eight years, at several companies. Unless those were all very small companies you should have been exposed to quite a few colleagues already, programmers and otherwise. You build a network by establishing and maintaining relationships, and engaging with people who don’t do exactly what you do, or have exactly the same values. Some of my best professional leads came from friends and former co-working in marketing, sales, management.